Maybe you don’t know what a grey warbler is. I am a grey warbler. I’m a bird. I’m grey and I warble. I want to tell you what happened to me and my partner last spring.
Together we built a little nest. It was a hanging, enclosed nest. I laid four little eggs; it took me eight days to lay them. They were white with reddish speckles. It was very strange because one of the eggs was olive green. It was very pretty. I was very proud of it.
Then when they hatched, the baby from the olive egg grew a lot faster and scratched the other three out of the nest and on to the ground. We had a terrible time trying to feed the remaining baby; it was always hungry. Then when it was ready to leave the nest we realized something: it was a Shining Cuckoo. We had been duped.
I was so glad when several months after leaving the nest it took off to spend winter in Australia.
My partner and I, since the event described, made another nest. I laid three eggs this time and they all grew into the most beautiful birds you could imagine!
Click HERE to listen to the New Zealand Grey Warbler.
Click HERE to listen to the New Zealand Shining Cuckoo (not like a cuckoo at all!)
Weave a Web 
Around here we have the sneaky brown-headed cowbirds that do the same thing. Just seems wrong!
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It’s what the world is coming to!
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Haha! Good on you, cuckoo! Another win for the team.
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My cat got one – a cuckoo. Should she go to prison?
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The gallows for the cat! How dare she take down one of my own.
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Anyway – if they find out in real life it’s a protected bird and gets a $50,000 fine!
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My silence costs a mere $5,000! That’s a $45,000 savings!
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Check your mail for a cheque (check).
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Really? Gosh
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Dear Sir
I am a Princess in Nigeria who needs your kind help. I have been sent a cheque/check for NZD 50.00, but have no use for it, really.
If your kind sir would send me his bank account details, he will find a big surprise in it, next time he cheques.
Your faithful servant, I remain humbly
Princess Abebi Adaeze Ezichi
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😂
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Dear Sir
I am waiting.
Princess Whatever I told you my name was.
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Do you real Princesses always disguise yourselves under false names?
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Absolutely, Kind Sir.
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I feel like there is a moral hidden somewhere in this story, but maybe I’m just cuckoo.
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Maybe you’re an egg(head).
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You may have cracked it.
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Was the little grey warbler cheating on her partner?
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Eggscellent story, Mr. Warbler.
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Am I the only one who is sobbing quietly in a corner? Mind you, that is my usual activity and location, so never mind.
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So sad but a fact of life. We have lots of warblers here – we call them LBBs – little brown birds, because there are so many others with the same color.
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North America is blessed with it’s birds – in their looks, colours, and habits. The little one I always delighted in (I can’t remember its name) used to walk down the trunk of a tree head first! New Zealand has interesting birds but not because of colour etc (most are a lovely shade of dull!) but because they are oddities – like the kiwi and kakapo.
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That’s a nuthatch! Charming little things. I’ve only seen one in our new spot but we had both the black and the rarer brown at our old home.
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Thanks – as soon as you said Nuthatch I remembered!
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